Thump

Motion graphics identity created for Vice's Thump channel.

THUMP LOGO BUMPER

The fine peoples at the Vice electronic music label Thump hit up Mr Munkowitz to create their new bumper that goes in front of every video and piece of content from the channel. So Munkowitz called upon myself and Conor Grebel (Bedtimes.xxx) to form the triad of design known as the PotreroPornProductions and we immediately dug into the brief, musing on how Thump and electronic music culture live in a symbiotic relationship, each reacting to the evolving impact of the other.

As a result, three physical treatments of the logo would be shot in-camera and then edited together to create a visual rhythm between organic metal and reflective strings. In the final moment, Thump’s logo would emerge in a clean, multi-planar acrylic form, with moving light sources cascading across for the final reveal. In the end however, only two of the three setups made the cut as the fine people at Vice wanted a more homogenous aesthetic, yet the guiding principles still prevailed and informed the imagery captured in-camera.

Cymatic Gallium

To create the organic ripples that affected the Gallium, our team hooked up a series of synthesizers and blasted resonating subwoofer pulses from a large speaker that caused the pools of gallium resting on it to ripple and form detailed sound wave patterns. These sounds were then captured on-set, and used in the final sound design composition.

We decided to use Gallium instead of water for our cymatic reaction material because it had rarely been affected by audio-driven vibrations in other works. The setup was to allow the liquid metal to vibrate across a black acrylic plane, swirling in recessed typographic pools that collectively made up the construct of the Thump logo.

Thump Logo

For the lighting, they used a variety of sources to pan across the logo at various speeds, and also using a variety of color tones, frequently hand-held and sometimes programed with a custom iPad-controlled scheme. The washes of light and color inspired creative editing of the resulting footage, enabling a layered logo formation that was textured, had beautiful internal shadowing and a natural depth and physical presence to it all.

For the final Thump logo, again the team wanted to stay in the practical realm, as they wanted the footage to fit in with the rest of the practical mayhem. So they laser cut two copies of the letters, one an opaque white acrylic and the other a crystal clear acrylic. They glued the two materials together for each letterform, and then placed them on a piece of black drape and shot downwards, placing the logo in the center of frame.

Production Process

Creatively, one of the key ingredients in the team was with local DP Devin Whetstone, who took his Alexa Mini and Master Prime 100mm Macro lens and donated them for the endowment of professional results. Other key members were superGaffer Chris Galdes, ultraGrips Dakota Wilder and Branden Paris and additional Creative love from frequent collaborator Mr Mike Williams. Overall, it was an amazing team giving their time and passion to make it great, donating their time towards the good vibes and pure intentions to collaborate and create for the Love.

Surprisingly, Vice had quite a small budget for this extremely visible piece of content, so the team had to be incredibly resourceful on how to pull it all off. So Munkowitz, calling upon all his connections from the SF locale. As a result, he assembled a Seal Team of inspired peoples to generously donate their time at very modest costs; focusing instead on the love of creating and collaborating together to make some Advanced Beauty. Another bonus was his good friend Jonathan Rowe donating his space at Madrone Studios so the team could shoot in the basement on a favor, which was a lovely and generous gesture from a homie.

Mirror Web

Unfortunately this treatment didn't make it through to the final bumper, but still revealed some serious beauty and discoveries for the team.

The team also tried an approach using multiple security mirrors and volumetric lighting to reveal our logo. The letters are cut from two-way acrylic which reflected several colors back.